The present invention relates to the transmission of power and torque.
More specifically, the invention relates to transmissions that change speed and torque between an input shaft and an output shaft. The variety of mechanical gear and transmission designs is extensive. However, mechanical gears and transmissions have a number of disadvantages including frictional wear, lubrication requirements, maintenance, and noise.
The use of magnetic or electromagnetic coupling can overcome several disadvantages of mechanical transmissions. For example, the frictional wear of mechanical gear teeth that mechanical transmissions may experience is substantially eliminated by magnetic coupling. The use of non-contact magnetic power transfer enables input and output shafts to be isolated and reduces maintenance schedule requirements. Furthermore, unlike mechanical transmissions with mechanical gear teeth, magnetic gears and transmissions have inherent, non-destructive overload protection.